Who can stop Benjamin Netanyahu?

HALIFAX—The staggering death toll of Israel’s war of rage and vengeance demands an answer before the region is knee-deep in innocent blood. Netanyahu’s six months of slaughter in Gaza has been his response to the atrocity of Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas butchered 1,200 innocent Israelis. There are now 33,000 dead Palestinians, more than half of them innocent women and children. Add to that 75,000 more who have been wounded. Last week, Netanyahu’s forces killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen, one of the last aid groups still operating in Gaza. They had just finished unloading a barge carrying 50 tonnes of badly needed aid for starving Gazans when their convoy was attacked. Despite the fact that the aid workers had been in communication with the Israeli Defense Forces, and despite the fact that their vehicles were well-marked, their convoy was hit by multiple Israeli air strikes. If it was a mistake, the IDF kept on making it. This indefensible attack brings back memories of what happened to a Turkish aid mission to Gaza in 2010. Heavily-armed Israeli special forces from the elite navy unit Flotilla 13 stormed the Mavi Marmara in international waters. The raid was a bid to enforce Israel’s crushing blockade of Gaza. Ten tonnes of aid the Turkish vessels were carrying never made it to Gaza. When the pre-dawn raid was over, nine people on the aid ship were dead, and another 50 were injured. Back then, Israel’s attack sparked international outrage, just as this latest killing of aid workers has now. And with good reason. More than 500 medical and aid workers have been killed by the IDF since the Gaza war began six months ago. Journalists have also died going their jobs in Gaza, a staggering 138 of them, mostly Palestinian. Prime Minister Netanyahu confirmed that Israel was indeed responsible for the deaths of the aid workers from World Central Kitchen. A bitter irony. That is the same organization which was first on the scene to feed needy Israelis after the ghastly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pictured on April 2, 2024. Screen capture courtesy CNN Netanyahu initially brushed off the tragic incident with a promise to be more careful about unintentionally taking innocent lives—noting that these things happen in war. He later said that Israel "deeply regrets the tragic accident," and said, "our hearts go out to their families and to their countries." The Israeli PM thinks it’s okay to bomb civilians in order to kill Hamas fighters, even when those civilians uprooted themselves and travelled to the places the IDF told them were safe. He thinks it’s okay to go into hospitals with guns blazing. He thinks it's okay to level Gaza's infrastructure, inflicting $18.5-billion of damage in a place that was already dirt poor to begin with. And he thinks it’s okay to consign more than a million innocent people to famine in the name of winning the war against Hamas. Food as the ultimate weapon. None of these things is okay. Given the violent lengths to which Netanyahu has gone, his war is a macabre exercise of collective punishment and the use of disproportionate force. U.S. President Joe Biden has denounced Israel’s “indiscriminate” bombing, and said that he was “outraged” and “heartbroken” by the recent killing of the aid workers. As for IDF attacks on hospitals, that is out of bounds. Under international humanitarian law, health establishments and units, including hospitals, should not be attacked. This protection covers the wounded and sick, as well as medical staff, and means of transport. Netanyahu’s conscious decision not to open more land border crossings so that aid trucks can stave off a mass starvation in Gaza is heartless and appalling. It is also a violation of the duties of an invading force. Pottery barn rules apply when it comes to playing the part of the invader. If you break it, you own it. Having destroyed so much of Gaza, Israel’s obligation is to see that the civilian population has the necessities of life. Netanyahu has failed utterly to do that. If Netanyahu persists in his policy of allowing a trickle rather than a torrent of aid to enter Gaza, the dreadful casualties on the battlefield will pale compared to the ravages of mass famine. Twenty-seven people in Gaza have already succumbed to the slow and cruel death of starvation, 23 of them children. As things now stand, unless negotiators can pull off a miracle, unless they can cobble together a cease-fire-for-hostages deal, Netanyahu has every intention of proceeding with a full-scale military operation in Rafah. Jammed with more than triple its normal population, Rafah would become a killing ground where thousands more civilians would die. So the question is: who can stop Netanyahu? The answer would normally be the United States. The U.S. is Israel’s most important ally. It supplies money and the military might to make Israel a regional super power. But from the very beginning of this war, Netanyahu has thumbed his nose at his American patrons. The Americans urged Israel to fight a targeted battle against those responsible for Oct. 7, not a universal bloodbath. Biden warned that too many civilians were dying in Netanyahu’s war. If that ghastly trend continued, he said that Israel would lose the world's support. How desperate is Netanyahu to keep the Middle East on the brink? Last week, Israel bombed the Iranian embassy in Damascus, killing seven military advisers, including three senior commanders. Not only does Israel’s PM not want to end the Gaza war, he wants to extend it. So why would an Israeli prime minister imperil the most important relationship his country has? Why would he drive one of the staunchest supporters Israel has—Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer—to publicly declare that Netanyahu has lost his way, and that Israel can’t survive if it becomes an international pariah? Simply because when the war ends, Netanyahu will have to face a series of reckonings that don’t end in a good place for him. How will he explain the massive security failure that took place on his watch and led to Oct. 7? Why didn’t Netanyahu act on intelligence that surfaced long before the attack, or did he just fatally discount it? Why did it take so long for the IDF to come to the aid of those Israelis attacked by Hamas on that fateful October day? According to a recent iPanel poll done for Bar Ilan University, just four per cent of Israelis believe that Netanyahu is a reliable source of information on the war with Hamas. With such low trust levels, will he be able to justify a war policy that has seriously damaged Israel’s standing in the world, and alienated a key ally? On the post-war political front, there is also an election the polls say Netanyahu can’t win, and his clouded legal situation. Netanyahu has already been indicted on corruption charges. The day is coming when he will no longer be able to avoid his day in court. And the end of the war will hasten that day. In the meantime, Netanyahu is in charge of Israel’s formidable war machine. So the question remains. Who can stop him? The answer is the same force that decides issues big and small in all democracies. The people. Only the Israeli people can deal with Netanyahu. Only the Israeli people can stand up to the current PM and say: “Not in our name.” That process is already beginning. Tens of thousands of people have flooded onto the streets of Jerusalem protesting the war. Families of the remaining hostages have joined forces with them, and a tent city has sprung around the Knesset. An angry mob recently surrounded the prime minister’s residence, demanding a deal to release the remaining hostages, and a change in government. It was a protest that turned into something approaching a riot. Netanyahu’s political pot is boiling over. If and when the public decides a politician is more concerned about his political survival than the national interest, his time is up. Under those circumstances, not even being at war can save him. Michael Harris is an award-winning author and journalist. The Hill Times

Who can stop Benjamin Netanyahu?

Netanyahu’s political pot is boiling over. If and when the public decides a politician is more concerned about his political survival than the national interest, his time is up. Not even being at war can save him, writes Michael Harris.

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Who can stop Benjamin Netanyahu?

Netanyahu’s political pot is boiling over. If and when the public decides a politician is more concerned about his political survival than the national interest, his time is up. Not even being at war can save him, writes Michael Harris.

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